Samardzija wins again, with big support from Cubs’ offense

The record shows that Jeff Samardzija is 2-0 in his first 2 starts of the 2012 season.

He got there in two completely different ways.

You know what? It’s probably going to be that way for a while as Samardzija completes the transition from reliever to starter.

Samardzija earned the winning decision, just barely, in Friday’s 9-5 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals at Busch Stadium, where the Cardinal raised their 2011 world-championship banner.

The victory was the second in a row for the Cubs, who improved to 3-5.

Now flash back to this past Sunday, when Samardzija worked smoothly, quickly and efficiently in beating the Washington Nationals 4-3 at Wrigley Field.

In that game, Samardzija came within one out of a complete-game victory. Things weren’t nearly as easy Friday.

He ran his pitch count up to 68 after only 3 innings, and by the time he huffed and puffed his way through the fifth, he had thrown 103.

It also appeared Samardzija was one batter away from not being able to qualify for the victory after his teammates had staked him to a 9-0 lead, with 8 of those runs coming against Adam Wainwright.

“You can’t say enough about our lineup today,” said Samardzija, who saw his ERA go from 1.04 to 3.95.

Samardzija won a starting job in spring training after having a solid season in the bullpen last year. The biggest questions centered on whether he had developed enough pitches and whether he could command them so he could get past 5 or 6 innings without running up the pitch count.

On Friday, he threw 25 pitches in the first inning, 18 in the second and 25 in the third. The Cardinals batted around in the bottom of the fifth, when they scored all 5 of their runs on 6 hits.

Cubs manager Dale Sveum quickly had to get Rafael Dolis warming up in the bullpen.

“That’s obviously not the start you want to have, 5 and dive,” Samardzija told reporters. “But you can do that when your offense goes out and puts up 9.”

That offense was keyed by left-handed hitters Ian Stewart and Bryan LaHair.

Third baseman Stewart hit a 3-run homer in the Cubs’ 4-run first inning. It was Stewart’s first big-league homer since Aug. 23, 2010, with Colorado. An injury-plagued season last year held him to no major-league homers, although he did hit 14 at the Triple-A level.

LaHair, the first baseman, hit his second homer of the year and his first career grand slam in the third inning.

The victory by the Cubs spoiled not only spoiled the World Series celebration — the Cardinals will get their rings Saturday — but also the home opener on a day when rain delayed the game 1 hour, 44 minutes at the start.

“Of course, we’re here to win,” LaHair told reporters. “They had a good celebration before the game. It’s deserved. But we played well and got a victory.”

bmiles@dailyherald.com